If the majority of your outings this year have consisted of schoolie after schoolie, you may have developed a case of the blues. And therein is the potential remedy – namely bluefish! Brutish, mid-30-inch tackle-busters have stormed our coast and the euphoria is palpable from Plymouth to Portsmouth!
South Shore and South Coast
From the mouth of the North River out toward Black Rock Beach in Cohasset, the talk in Mass Bay has turned toward bluefish, big bluefish! Not surprisingly, mackerel, which have been the calling card to striper success have largely disappeared. Pete from Belsan’s in Scituate said that the blues are big, teen-sized fish that have been partial to smacking a top water plug. Birds have been the chief indicator as to where the action is but anglers opting to troll with X-Raps and Rapala CD18s are picking off unforeseen fish.
All has not been lost on the striper front thankfully. There have been schoolie blitzes at the mouth of the North River as well as at the mouth of Scituate Harbor. Eels continue to be a must-have item for the dark through dusk crowd and they are getting far bigger than schoolie-size at The Hazards, Sunken Ledge, Smith Rocks, Osher Ledge and Chest Ledge.
Duxbury has pogies and hickory shad – both big baits for big fish! For pogies you’ll need a good eye and sharp treble. For hickory shad, look for them at night by docks, piers, bridges and breakwaters and tempt them with a sabiki rig!
Now that the screaming full-moon tides are waning, Captain Jason Colby is finding better bass, between 25 and 30 pounds, throughout Westport at night with eels. Chumming and chunking has been spotty but occasionally rewarding by day. Find patches of soft bottom among wrecks and rubble in water over 50′ for fluke. Plans are to snoop around for tautog over the next few days; I hope to have a winning white chin report soon.
Greater Boston
Graves Light was the scene of a bluefish massacre earlier in the week with 15-pounders slamming SP Minnows for Steve Langton and Steve Langton Jr. aboard Captain Dave Panarello’s “Bite Me” center console. Along with first mate Carl Vining, multiple hook-ups were the norm, including a quadruple, fish-on “fire drill”! With Boston being one big bait bouillabaisse along with the fact that it is September, odds are that those fish aren’t going anywhere! You may have to snoop around for those blues and employ a backup plan such as deep-water trolling by the outer islands, but for the first time this year, odds are really good you can plan on catching blues!
Not surprisingly mackerel have either been eaten or have bolted to deep water. However, something can be said for perseverance. My friend Joe Holey put in two solid hours by the B Buoy and managed to scratch together 12 lonely mackerel. They hauled those macks to the ledges off Hull, find a nice hump in the middle of 100’+ of water, and Joe promptly came tight to a monster which scrubbed him off on the ledge, leaving dashed dreams and a sleepless night! The other option continues to be the thousands of schoolies that call the inner harbor their home. The last unofficial weekend of summer will be a boat show undoubtedly. If the schoolies don’t show from all the traffic pay attention for marked fish between the Anchorage, Lower Middle and Castle Island. Those fish may be run-and-gun shy but they will be there. Carl Vining’s method for pounding those low-lying linesiders is to drop a Spro Jig on their heads, and it works!
North Shore
Matt from Capefish Outfitters said that you can expect surface feeds most mornings in Salem. The fish are mostly mid-20” specimens but anglers dropping their wares down deeply are being rewarded with larger fish. Those schoolies are just the ticket for fly fishermen who are matching the juvenile herring forage with flat wings and deceivers; you may have to struggle to find mackerel but early risers and chummers are finding a few outside of Bakers and Misery Islands.
According to Tomo from Tomo’s Tackle, the squid squad is even finding a few mackerel while their catching calamari off Marblehead, Salem, Beverly and Gloucester piers. Skip from Three Lantern Marine in Gloucester told me that the toothies have taken hold off Thacher Island as well as Andrews Point and Halibut Point. These double-digit bruisers seem more than happy to whack a topwater plug or take a trolling plug. Mackerel are a tough find but you can still get them if you search. Exhibit 1 was the cooler full that was brought into Surfland just this past Wednesday! Boaters live-lining mackerel at the mouth of the Merrimack are encountering big bluefish! Closer to dark the ratio seems to turn more toward stripers with the nod also going to the mouth of the Essex River, Emerson Rocks and just off the Parker River Wildlife Reservation. With beach buggies reigning over the sands of the refuge, anglers are setting their sights on schoolies which they are catching while spiking surf rods in the sand.
Fishing Forecast
You don’t have to have an appreciation for a rhythmic backbeat to enjoy the blues! If the South Shore is your home port, pack some topwater plugs and look out for serious surface activity off the Plymouth Power Plant, the North River and off Cohasset. Expect to put in your time if you’re hoping mackerel are in your forecast in the Greater Boston area. But if you get some, try drifting/trolling off the ledges off Hull. Just be sure to pack steel leaders, the odds of a blue blow-up at any time are very good. A better bet is the schoolie bite in the harbor, but to limit being part of the boat show plan on an early rise. On the North Shore, there is no slip up in the squid pursuit off most any lit dock from Swampscott to Gloucester. For bass, if you have an over-sand buggy than the Parker River Wildlife Reservation is hard to pass up. That is unless you’re yearning for the yellow-eyed beasts which are prowling off the Merrimack River.
This report seems to be totally opposite of the actual conditions on the north shore in the essex river and plum island areas. Lets start to talk about the lack of fish density in an honest manner. You can’t catch what is not present. The fishery is in danger of another serious downturn. So lets talk about it.
This guy needs to get out and fish more. “the fishery is in danger of another serious downturn” what fishery are you talking about? the bluefish that seem to mangle all my gear everytime i go out? or the lack of stripers because the water is about 70 degrees either way if your spot is to crowded your too lazy, and if you aren’t catching fish your too lazy. not much to talk about, practice catch and release, handle the fish respectfully, and most importantly have fun. if you get frustrated by not catching consider playing golf. EVERYONE gets skunked…EVERYONE.speaking of which i’ve always wondered how long does it take to film a half hour episode of ON THE WATER? have a great Labor Day weekend everyone.
Don
With all do respect, yes everyone gets skunked, your correct. However I will tell you that the striper fishery is very much at risk. There is no possible way that it can continue to sustain the pressure that it gets. Yes I practice catch and release 95% percent of the time. The water may be warm for sure but isn’t it better to be proactive then to realize its to late?? One would think so. By the time a lot of studies are complete the info is obsolete because so much time has passed. On the other hand I have a really good friend who’s an EPO and the amount of illegal poaching or people keeping more than their limit is astounding. It’s actual sickening. There’s no doubt that the striper stock is dwindling. With electronics, the cell phone and the shear number of people fishing if there’s a large school of bass it doesn’t take long for the place to become crowded with boats. The commercial guys took over 800,000 lbs of striper in this state. Then you take x amount of boats times x amount of fisherman times x amount of days fishing x amount of stripers caught. B x F x D x S = Decimated striper population. Just because there may be a lot today doesn’t mean there will be tomm.
I agree with Don get out there and fish I’ve been catching huge blues all over plum island and at the mouth I have also landed some nice stripers at the mouth at sun up the past few days and I have only seen one other boat next to me fishing. I’ve lost count of how many stripers I’ve caught around plum this year…..well over 300 fish with only about 40 of them being keepers, so I do agree there is a lack of bigger fish around but you can’t catch them sitting at home on the computer. Get out there and fish! In a couple weeks the river up by deer island will be on fire once water temps drop, there is a lot of herring up there, last fall I was catching stripers till the end of October up there and again with only 1 or 2 boats near by fishing. Get the tides right and fish first or last light or overnight. Don’t expect to catch fish if ur to lazy to wake up early….by the time u get out there at noon time way to much boat traffic.
You Ben getting blues in the bay area of the meerimack
Was catching them from the beginning of the mouth and out to the green can on the incoming tide. I have also been catching them on the southern side of the Island, however the bite has been slow the past couple of days. Best way to catch them is trolling to cover more area. Good luck.
Why is my previous comment on your report not posted???? I expect a reply. Thanks.
While my comments are awaiting moderation, whatever that means, I assume that means does this conversation serve your commercial needs! Maybe that is the root problem with fisheries management. Its time to start the process of discovering what really needs to be done to protect this vital resource. I would hope that you would want to lead that discussion. It is obvious that it is time.
Your failure to post my previous comments indicates to me that you do not warrant my continued support of your magazine. I will not renew when it is up. For your information, the charter captains, local shore guides, and serious surf fisherman are questioning just what is happening with the striped bass fishing on the north shore. The premier orvis outfitter for the essex river and cranes beach area is advising clients to fish elsewhere. Be brave. Be honest. Send me an email if you would like to refute anything I have said. You only make yourself look bad when you post these kind of reports that are contray to actual conditions.
There are those out there that will deny the facts and the truth until the last fish has been taken. The fishery for striped bass peaked in 2009-2010 and every year is worse. A steady decline is happening and the few large biomasses of larger fish are being decimated by recs and comms alike. We know where these fish are and were located as so does everyone. 1980’s all over again…
I agree with the concerns voiced above by Kevin and Ron with respect to the striped bass fishery. My perspective is south shore…., Duxbury, Plymouth, and Kingston Bays, where fish over 15 lbs are now rare, a big change from past years. Check the website for guide Dave Bitters (baymen charters) who reports 30-40 schoolies for every keeper, and the keepsrs are really just bigger schoolies. Pogies are also scarce, with no comparison to pre 2009 when large schools were visible on top every morning. You can thank the purse seiners from Omega Protein for at least part of that picture. So I made several runs to PTown this year, where it was routine to see 200-300 boats hammering the bass which were attracted to the sand eel schools…many of those boats were commercial fisherman..a bigger crowd than past years likely because of weaker bass populations elsewhere. I responded to the 2015 marine fisheries survey with the recommendation that we end the commercial fishery and start a slot limit, but the other northeast states would need to be on board to have real impact.
Mike kelleher I also fish that area and I agree and it scares me to think about it I have been fishing Plymouth for as long as I can remember and it’s changed so much from eel river to the spark plug used to be one big blitz of blues and striper so thick they would hit the bottom of the boat while drifting through them hasnt been like that for years
The striper biomass is in serious decline. The north shore has been abyssmal especially. Spots where people used to catch fish regularly have been barren the past couple seasons now. We need to take serious action or were gonna have another 1980’s on our hands, even though it’s probabaly too late at this point anyways.
Hows the fishing in the Merrimack river
been fishing the Essex all summer – plenty of action with schoolies to midsize Stripers – no keepers although I throw everything back no matter what size. I gave up fishing the islands off Ipswich to Thatchers. The stripers just aren’t there.
Seals
All bass and blues in the three bays this morn! All in on the incoming, and gone on the out-going! Nice fall run fishing if you catch the tides right! Tight-lines!
I live and fish on the North Shore Kevin, and I happen to think Ron’s report is spot on, as it usually is. Agreed that the striped bass stock is way down, but the report is right on. I’ve had a less than stellar season fishing Lynn/Nahant/Swampscott/Revere, but have caught my share of fish, with a few over 35 pounds. While it’s been one of the worst seasons I can remember, if you put in your time, you’ll catch fish. Night time is the right time has been the theme this year for us. Great magazine, and great report, Ron. Tight lines fellas.